Profiles

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Shridhar Chillal of Pune, India, knows how to captivate a crowd. When he pulled the brown cloth bag of his left hand to reveal his record breaking long nails, the audience of Fox’s “Guinness World Records” TV show let out a collective gasp. Together his five nails measure an astounding 20 feet 2 1/4 inches. That breaks down by finger as follows: thumb, 56²; index finger, 43²; middle finger, 46 1/4²; ring finger, 49 1/2²; and pinkie, 47 1/2². As you might expect, caring for the nails, which he rubs daily, with boric acid, is quite an ordeal for Chillal and his wife. It’s hard to sleep, and the weight of the nails causes constant pain in his hands. Why spend 46 years growing your nails? “I wanted to be different from the ordinary man,” says Chillal. “If I broke a nail, I would probably have a heart attack.”